For a more in-depth analysis, download the full case study
Following the release of the updated Donor Engagement & Cultivation Guide at PMDMC in July of this year, PBS partnered with member stations to Basin PBS of Midland, Texas and WLJT of West Tennessee, to launch their first targeted welcome email campaign. The goal of the campaign was to showcase how smaller stations with limited resources can download the emails from the Prospect Portal and apply email marketing best practices to more effectively communicate, cultivate, and overtime, convert prospects to donors.

Basin PBS and WLJT each sent three personalized emails adopted from messaging template provided by PBS, to individuals who opted in to receive local station communications. The results were promising – both stations saw open rates at or above (upwards of 26%) public television digital marketing and fundraising benchmarks.

Missed Opportunities are Lessons Learned

Such great results, however, are often undervalued and overlooked, and many organizations don’t introduce new subscribers to their online community. In fact, approximately one-third of member stations haven’t accessed the Prospect Portal names available to them over the last 12-months. These are missed opportunities to welcome subscribers online, engage them in the station’s work, and overtime, convert them to donors in a more cost effective way.

To learn more about how your station can take advantage of the names PBS delivers to stations, please download the Donor Engagement & Cultivation Guide. To learn more about how your station can more effectively cultivate names from the prospect portal, please contact Keith Brengle, Director, PBS Digital. Interested in learning more about future welcome series please contact Natasha Hilton, Senior Associate, Development Services.